1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications, and more specifically to an operational support system (OSS) which may be used by a provider of high bandwidth connections to users at locations such as homes and offices.
2. Related Art
Service providers often provide high bandwidth connections to users. Examples of such service providers include incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) such as PacBell of California, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) such as Covad Communications Group, Inc. (the assignee of the subject patent application). The ILECs and CLECs are commonly referred to as LECs in the present application.
Efficient and effective delivery of high bandwidth connection services often requires coordination of several tasks and use of related information. The tasks may be performed in several xe2x80x98stagesxe2x80x99 of the service delivery process. For example, in an initial set-up stage, a service provider may need to setup several types of equipment before being able to deliver service.
The status of the tasks in the set-up stage may impact tasks in other stages as well. For example, a service provider may not be able to accept orders for the service in an area unless service is already available in the area or until there is an indication of expected date of availability of the service in the area.
Furthermore, the interface to accept such orders may need to be simple and user-friendly. The expectations of the requestor of the service may need to be quickly and/or accurately set. Once an order is received, the order may also need to be processed efficiently, at least to minimize the associated overhead for a service provider.
The present invention allows a service provider to efficiently rollout digital subscriber loop (DSL) technology based service in additional geographical areas. By rolling out the service, the service provider may provide high bandwidth connections to user locations (e.g., homes) on local loops in these additional geographical areas.
As is well-known, each user location is typically connected only to (or served by) one central office, and a service provider may have to perform several tasks, many of them within the central office, to be able to provide DSL based services to the user locations connecting to the central office.
In accordance with the present invention, the tasks necessary to rollout service in a geographical area are identified in an operational support system (OSS) containing a computer system. Each task is indicated to be completed in the computer system upon completion of the task. When all the identified tasks are complete, the rollout process is determined to be complete.
Due to such a computer assisted rollout process, a service provider may be able to manage the rollout of service in many central offices in parallel. The ability to manage in parallel may be important as the LECs may attempt to aggressively increase the service coverage through a large geographical area.
In the case CLECs, the computer system may be used to manage specific tasks according to regulatory requirements also. For example, a CLEC may need to first request collocation space from an ILEC. The ILEC may then need to delineate (e.g., by installing a cage surrounding the area) the allocated space to the CLEC and provide electrical power. Upon delineation of the collocation space, the CLEC may populate the collocation space with the equipment necessary to provide DSL-based service.
The computer system may be used to enforce the dependencies in the tasks during the rollout process. For example, as soon as a decision is indicated to be made to rollout service in an area covered by a central office, a task to get a quote from an ILEC may be activated. As an additional example, only upon completion of testing of transmission lines, the operational support system may enable a user to indicate that the service is actually available. The service availability date may be used in several subsequent service delivery processes. In addition, the later task can be indicated to be complete only upon completion of the earlier task to force a desired sequence in the execution of the tasks.
The computer system may maintain entries for expected date of availability and actual date of availability of various types of xDSL based services (e.g, IDSL, ADSL), and allow the orders to be processed according to the availability dates. In addition, the system enables personnel to indicate when different tests are performed for effective provision of the DSL-based services.
Therefore, the present invention enables a LEC to rollout DSL-based services in new geographic areas quickly and efficiently as the tasks required for each rollout may be managed using a computer system.
The present invention enables tasks to be scheduled effectively as any necessary sequence required in the execution of tasks may be indicated in the computer system, and the sequence can be used in scheduling the later tasks as well as to verify that the later task is completed only after completion of the earlier task.
The present invention can be used by CLECs also as tasks for securing collocation space may also be indicated in the computer system, and the personnel can be forced to indicate that the tasks are complete upon completion of the tasks.
Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.